


Fate Doesn't Always Get It Right

by Duchess67



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-28 01:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20417804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duchess67/pseuds/Duchess67
Summary: Xander can't walk away from a pretty lady in tears.





	Fate Doesn't Always Get It Right

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Daughter of the Morning Star](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20320453) by [Erato_Syne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erato_Syne/pseuds/Erato_Syne). 

> Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren’t mine and I’m only borrowing them for a bit of fun. Yes, some will be slightly bruised or ruffled when I’m done, but at least I’m not killing any of them off, no matter what they might deserve.
> 
> Inspired by Daughter of the Morning Star by Erato_Syne
> 
> A/N: Okay, this was inspired by a fic that was, itself, inspired by another. This is my take on a similar situation happening. And this will probably be the ONLY m/m implied fic I ever write. *g*

-=-=-=-

Xander Harris was in both heaven and hell. He’d gotten thrown through a portal into another universe and it was MARVEL universe, with his favorite heroes and not so favorite villains. 

He’d been here a while, nearly ten years in fact and learned a lot about it that was most decidedly NOT in the comics. Like the fact that most people here had a soulmate (or even two!) and you learned who that soulmate was by the first words your destined other half said to you being written on your skin when you were born. Some people had more than one set of words, meaning they would be part of a triad. Not having any words whatsoever got you labeled a “blank” and you tended to be treated as something of a pariah.

Since Xander wasn’t from this universe originally, he was a “blank” and was being socially shunned. Something that struck him as odd, considering the marked that hadn’t yet met their matches went out with each other all the time, risking making attachments with each other. Or even going out with those who’d had marks, but they’d faded, meaning their matches had died. But not even those people would consider going out with him past learning he had NO marks at all. He thought it was a disgusting double standard.

So one day he was walking through Central Park on a bright, sunny and warm Saturday afternoon and saw a lovely little brunette woman crying inconsolably on a bench. He looked all around, no one in sight looked like they’d had a hand in why or cared to cheer her up, so he stepped closer. He cleared his throat to let her know he was near and spoke, “Um, can I help you, Miss?” 

Her head had whipped up at the first sound he’d made, she stared while she sniffled, but said nothing.

He tried again, “Hi, my name is Xander. I know you have no idea who I am and I wouldn’t blame you for calling the cops on me, but I was wondering if maybe I could help… in some way. With whatever the reason is that you’re crying, that is. I can buy you a soda, a coffee or even some ice cream, if it’s that serious a situation.”

Her face crumpled and she started crying harder.

Waving his hand, “Whoa, wait, please? Please don’t cry anymore, or at least until you tell me what flavor ice cream you want from that place right over there? I’ll go get it and bring it to you or you can come with me, your choice. Though I’d suggest you coming with, since you don’t know me and to keep yourself safe you should really watch me closely so that I don’t poison you or something.”

The young woman masterfully pulled herself together enough to say, “Chocolate Peanut Buttery Swirl or Mint Chocolate Chunk. And I’ll stay right here, because after being rejected by both of my soulmates today, for the third time, no less! So I’m just done and really don’t care if you poison me or not.”

Xander read the words she bared on her wrists by removing wide, beaded bracelets. The words shown were cold and cruel, leaving no doubt whatsoever she’d been harshly greeted by two people who were supposed to love and cherish her. The fact this beautiful young woman had had to wear those words on her wrists all her life, to hear them and then give those same people two more chances only to be rebuffed hatefully again… 

His face blanked, hardened and then struggled to look caring once more as he went to his knees in front of the young woman. He reached for her hand with one of his own and placed the other on her shoulder as he ducked down to look her in eye, “I know you still don’t know me and I don’t know you, but that doesn’t matter because you did NOT deserve any of that to happen to you, or to have such hateful words on you all your life. If there was any way that I could fix it, I would. I’m pretty good at helping people, if you want me to give it a try-.”

She snapped out, “No! I don’t ever even want to see either of them again for as long as I live. Please, don’t try to play mediator? They’ve had enough chances from me.”

He squared his shoulders a little and he said, “Okay, I won’t. And I’m glad you’re sticking up for yourself enough to turn down that offer, to be honest. But what I will do is, step one, I AM going to hug you right now because you look like you need one pretty bad.” 

He promptly suited action to words and was surprised at how tightly she wrapped her arms around his ribs. Then he simply held her, patted her back and her hair a little and let her cry herself out.

When she pulled back and seemed to get herself together a little he said, “Step two, I will now pull you to your feet,” he stood her up as he spoke. “And take you over to that ice cream parlor to buy you as much ice cream as you need to deal with this terrible, horrible, no good, very shitty day.”

She smiled briefly through her tears at that slightly mangled reference as he continued, “Step three, I’m going to get you to call a friend, if you have one locally and I’ll stay with you until they come to get you because you really need a friend here and like, right now.” 

Her face crumpled again, “My best friends are kinda long distance at the moment.”

Xander winced, but offered, “Do you need to use my phone to call them? I won’t get charged extra, I got the international plan.”

She sobbed, then said, “Really long distance and like, they don’t get phone service there at all.”

Xander immediately thought her friends must be dead. He tried to change the subject, “So, I’m guessing you’re not from the big apple, but are a transplant like me?”

She sniffed and wiped her face on her hands, her nose on the underside of her sleeve, “I came here for a job interview and I’m pretty sure I aced it, but now I can’t take it even if they did choose me because my so called soul mates work there and … There’s NO way I’d be able to avoid them if I took the job, so I’m not- I CAN’T-!”

Xander took one of her flailing hands, “Hey, don’t try to figure it all out right this minute. When were you supposed to hear back on whether or not you got the job?”

“They told me to expect a call within the next three days,” she answered.

He smiled, “Then give yourself at least a day to settle down from this upset, just so that you can think a little straighter and regroup. As smart as you obviously are, I just know you had other job offers, so you can go over those and pick one that’s better suited to you.”

After they were settled at an outside table with their many ice creams, she looked up and asked around a mouthful, “Why are you being so nice to me? Like you said, you don’t even know me.”

Xander shook his head, “My family would have my guts for bowstrings if I walked away from a lady in need. They trained me up better than that.”

She blinked at his turn of phrase and asked, “So where are you from, Xander, where’s your family?”

He got a sad, wistful look on his face, “California, originally and, well… They’re too far away for a phone call, too, actually.”

She got a confused look on her face that quickly morphed into one of horror, “Oh I’m so sorry for bringing up a sad subject. Want to try some of this,” she held up a spoonful of one of her ice creams.

He leaned forward and took the bite, “Mmm, that’s good. I may have to get that one next time.”

She raised an eyebrow and asked, “Next time?”

He chuckled, “Well, I was hoping we could get ice cream again sometime, preferably under happier circumstances. You know, just to be a local friend for you, until someone better comes along or you decide to go elsewhere.”

Her smile at that point was a beautiful, radiant thing that stole Xander’s breath away as she said, “Xander, you’re about to discover that if you’re my friend, that I’m a very loyal person and you’ll be hard pressed to get rid of me.”

“I think I’d like that,” he told her.

Xander eventually sent a letter to Darcy Lewis’ two former soul mates via Thor. It read…

To Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes,   
I just wanted to thank you guys for helping me to meet the love of my life. It’s all because of you two that I met her in the park about ten months ago. She is the most beautiful, curvaceous and sassy brunette to walk the face of any planet and she fell for me. ME.   
I’ve been unlucky in love for way too long and didn’t think I’d ever find anyone, especially here on this Earth where you guys have the words of your soulmate written on your skin. Well I’m not from here, so I have no words and didn’t think I’d ever find love on this ball of rock I’d been stranded on for nearly 11 years now, but thanks to you guys, I did.   
What’s even more amazing is the fact that my family from my original Earth has finally found me and got to be with us today when my Love did me the honor of allowing me to become her husband. Thanks to the two of you, my life is suddenly perfect and I will NEVER be able to thank you enough!  
Well that’s it, just wanted you to know all that and wish you both a happy life.   
Oh, my beautiful bride wants to say a few words in this letter, too.

Hey you two, just wanted to tell you that I know I’m happier with my husband than would have ever been possible with who “Fate” had chosen for me.   
You see, I was supposed to be the third in a triad, but my soulmates had rejected me for the third and last time with some really harsh words earlier on, on the very day I met my husband. The first time was when they rescued me from the villain of the week who had been throwing cars around and nearly flattened me with a buick. I’m sure they don’t even remember, because they were so fed up with women saying their words all the time as a trick that they automatically lashed out when I said them for real. The kicker is, I must have been the only woman in New York that HADN’T looked up what their words were, either of them.  
Well, they ripped my heart right out of my chest, threw it down on the ground and stomped all over it. Their words were the most horrible, hateful things that had ever been said to me, winding around my wrists like manacles.   
Then they took off so fast that I couldn’t even show them their words on my skin. Nope they were just gone and when I tried to the next time I met up with them in a restaurant, they scoffed and didn’t believe me. They even suggested I’d had the words tattooed on, just to fool them. That hurt, too, but I could see where they were coming from and tried to be understanding.

The third time was when I’d gone to Stark Tower for an interview and ran into them both in the hallway near Pepper Potts’ private elevator. They really surpassed themselves with their stinging commentary on just what they thought of me that time, even accusing me of following them around and threatening to have me arrested. I gotta admit, it broke something inside of me. So I ran out of there in tears, headed into Central Park to cry my eyes out on a park bench and the rest is history. Oh and my hubby talked me into getting the horrible words tattooed over not long after we met and began dating and he has since got matching ones, to show that he’s my REAL soulmate.  
I honestly don’t wish my former soulmates ill, even now. No, I hope they will be happy with each other and never miss their third at all because she’s lost to them forever.   
So long boys, have a nice life!

Wordlessly, the two men compared the handwriting of the woman in the letter with the words on each other’s skin. When it matched in every way, right down to the color of the glittery metallic blue ink she’d used, (the one thing that HADN’T been revealed online) they both bolted to find Thor.

When they caught up with him in Jane’s lab, they asked him, “Where’s the envelope this letter came in? We have to find this woman!”

Thor didn’t get a chance to answer, Jane did, “Did you not read the letter?” The expression on her face was one of disdain.

“Yes,” Bucky snapped. “That’s why we have to find her, because there’s been a horrible mistake!”

Thor’s deep voice startled the two agitated men, “Yes, there has been, but it’s since been corrected and neither of you are welcome to try and change anything at this late date.”

Steve begged, “You don’t understand, Thor, she’s our SOULMATE!”

Jane snapped, “Oh we understand perfectly. You both decided to be absolute assholes to every woman you’ve met for more than the last year and a half and it backfired on you when you drove away the one woman you’d been waiting for. Well guess what, you don’t get another chance to make her life hell, Darcy is perfectly happy with Xander and neither of you will ever come between them!”

Bucky looked horrified.

Steve stuttered out, “What do you mean?”

Thor answered, “Because Lord Xander has taken Lady Darcy back to his home realm where he is a most beloved co-leader of a mighty nation of warriors who already love his Lady very much. He had to specifically order them not to harm the two of you, mainly because you were responsible for the fact the Lady was now his bride and the mother of his child. Lady Darcy extracted a similar promise from the Lady Jane and myself,” he looked at them sternly for a moment.

Both men looked like they’d been kicked in the teeth or the gut at these revelations.

“That letter you hold in your hands was written more than a year as a form of therapy,” Jane told them gently. “It also never would have been given to you if they hadn’t left this universe entirely and gone home to Xander’s. They just had to wait until after the baby was born and was a few months old because portal travel is weird on pregnancies and newborns.”

Thor told the still stunned men, “The Lady Darcy was already pregnant on her wedding day, but saved the knowledge of it to surprise Lord Xander during their feast afterwards. When he announced the news to all of us we cheered, his people the loudest of us all. The Lady told him quite loudly that this was only the first as she wanted a house full of children. Lord Xander made her an oath then and there that she could have whatsoever her heart desired, as long as her own life wasn’t endangered.” The huge blond smiled in remembrance, “The celebration lasted for nearly two weeks on Asgard and it was glorious!”

Looking at the two crestfallen men, Jane told them, “Darcy grew up in an orphanage and foster care. No one wanted her because of the words on her wrists, taking them as a sign that she must just be bad through and through. No one gave her a chance, until she met Xander. So it’s no wonder she wants a large family to make up for all she lacked when she was a kid. Xander’s huge chosen family welcoming her with open arms helped a lot, too. They said,” Her breath hitched a little before she continued. “They said that he is the heart of their family and adding Darcy just made the heart that much bigger and stronger.” Jane actually sniffled and wiped away a tear, “She deserves every bit of happiness she can get and Xander is it, so you two are just going to have to learn to get by on your own!” That said, she kicked them out of her lab.


End file.
